The songs of two common finches provide a steady soundtrack in cities across North America: the House Finch and the American Goldfinch. While they can sound similar, a couple of key features help s...
Outdoor cats kill billions of birds each year in North America — and they live much shorter lives than indoor cats. But life as an indoor cat doesn’t have to be boring. On Bring Birds Back, cat beh...
Two eagles locking talons high above the ground might look like they’re risking injury, but it’s a normal courtship behavior called the “cartwheel display.” Fully entangled, the two birds begin spi...
A pair of Bald Eagles will reuse their nest each year and repair it with new tree branches. But recently in British Columbia, scientists came across an eagle nest made largely out of dried kelp. Ba...
J’orge Garcia loves making things. For several years at the Chicago Public Library, he helped people to design and build their own creations with educational tools like the Finch Robot. With basic ...
Long-tailed Ducks are back for the winter from the north, where they nested on tundra ponds and marshes. These diving ducks spend the winter in deep salt water, often in sheltered bays. Long-tailed...
Isla Guadalupe off the Western coast of Mexico is famous for its massive colonies of petrels, shearwaters, and Laysan Albatrosses. Now, conservationists hope it can become a safe haven for Black-fo...
There are nearly ninety species of wrens in the world, and quite a few are exceptional singers. Nearly all of them reside in the Western Hemisphere, with the majority living in Central and South Am...
The video game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure lets you have adventures in a stunning virtual landscape while curled up at home with a cup of hot cocoa. The game puts you in the shoes of a birdwatcher a...
Wendell Berry wrote: "When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drak...
For folks looking to try birding for the first time, getting started can be daunting. Should you learn every species’ call, every subtle feather pattern before you head out to look for birds? While...
At her home in New Orleans, Grammy-winning musical artist Rickie Lee Jones has transformed her yard into a safe haven for birds. By putting out water and feeders, she’s become popular with the loca...
Kererū, green-blue pigeons native to New Zealand, like to sun themselves after dining on fruit. But in warm summer months, the bird’s sunbathing has a surprising side-effect. A part of their digest...
The Golden Eagle is a bird of epic proportions not only for their impressive size but also for the many legends they’ve inspired across human history. They are one of the largest eagles in the worl...
Polar Bears symbolize the icy landscapes of the far north like no other animal. The bear's way of life — its very survival — is inseparable from the Arctic pack-ice. Less familiar is a remarkable b...
From his start in 1937, the gangly, black-feathered Daffy Duck was a cartoon original: wildly outspoken, volatile, and confrontational — a truly daft duck. Daffy was one of the most memorable chara...
A century of logging and fire control has taken its toll on the mature pine forests of the West, the preferred nest site for this Lewis's Woodpecker. But there is hope. Lewis's Woodpeckers also nes...
A bird known as Titanis walleri made its home in Florida just a few million years ago. Titanis, as its name suggests, was titanic indeed — a flightless predator, 5 feet tall, with a massive hooked ...
Every bird species uses its wings a little differently, and some are specialized for highly efficient flight. But that means going without other abilities. Swallows and hummingbirds, like a Talaman...
To hear a Common Loon in the wild during summer, you’ll need to find a northern, freshwater lake where a pair is nesting. But to find that same Common Loon in winter, you’ll likely need to look on ...
